Thursday, May 29, 2008

And Sperm for All

Just weeks after legalizing gay marriage in the Golden State, the California Supreme Court may decide yet another high profile gay and lesbian rights case. On Wednesday the high court heard arguments in a lawsuit brought by a lesbian who claims her Christian doctors refused to perform artificial insemination on her for religious reasons:

"Guadalupe Benitez, 36, of Oceanside, alleges that doctors at the only nearby medical practice covered by her insurance treated her with fertility drugs and instructed her how to inseminate herself at home, but told her their beliefs prevented them from assisting her further.

Benitez, now the mother of a 6-year-old boy and 2-year-old twin girls, sued Vista-based North Coast Women's Care Medical Group under a state law that prohibits for-profit businesses from arbitrarily discriminating against clients."

The doctors are arguing that they tried to "accommodate" Benitez by not performing the procedure on her, but still referring her to a clinic that was ok with lesbian insemination. Apparently to these doctors some inseminations are less equal than others.

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